"More than a hundred names flash on the screen in the final few seconds of The Simpsons every Sunday night: the writers and actors, animators and editors, technicians and producers who collaborate on that hit Fox show. Some of the jobs are, well, unusual. There are layout artists and background artists, color designers and a whole crew of people who do nothing but double-check other artists' work, making sure they didn't smudge anything. And there are almost as many other people, another hundred names, who get no credit at all. And credit is due." >>> Read More

"At a convention of religious broadcasters a few months back, President Bush got rolling on the 'old-fashioned values' theme that will be so central to his campaign. 'We need a nation," he said, "closer to the Waltons than the Simpsons.'" >>> Read More

"Year after hilarious year, The Simpsons keeps outdoing itself with wry sarcasm, topical themes, and superb scripting that put most other comedies to shame. Now in its fourth season, The Simpsons has never been better." >>> Read More

"The global computer web, called the Internet, was ingeniously designed to survive a nuclear holocaust. And should it ever come to that, one figure of the late 20th century is sure to stagger from the fallout and demand a brewskie. That bug-eyed dope Homer Simpson." >>> Read More

"'The Simpsons' creator Matt Groening is so angry with executive producer James L. Brooks for cross-promoting 'The Critic' on this Sunday's episode that he has yanked his name from the credits." >>> Read More

"From 8 to 11, seven nights a week, religion is a frontier. Television shows that don't hesitate to bask in violence and sex avoid faith as if it were a mortal sin. The best the divine can hope for on most shows is a cameo. Entering its 11th season this fall, 'The Simpsons' is changing that, said Robert Thompson, professor of film and television at Syracuse University." >>> Read More

"In a decade packed with breathtaking innovations from 'Seinfeld' to 'The Sopranos,' 'The Simpsons' is the show that captured the '90s cold from beginning to end the consumerism, the media saturation, the stresses on families and civic culture." >>> Read More

"After 10 years, 'The Simpsons' remains one of the most critically acclaimed shows on TV. You'll find it on the 'best' list of almost every TV critic, along with words of praise for staying irreverent and funny after all these years. But if you turn to alt.tv.simpsons, the show's Internet discussion group, it's as if a different show is being talked about. New episodes are routinely panned and held up as evidence that 'The Simpsons' has been vulgarized and cheapened." >>> Read More

"Without The Simpsons, there would have been no Beavis and Butt-head, Duckman, King of the Hill or South Park. It redefined television animation, spawning shows that seem far more extreme by comparison - which naturally helped its own continual acceptance into the mainstream." >>> Read More

"Rick Miller is, by his own admission, nuts. Who in their right mind, after all, would adapt 'MacBeth,' one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, by casting Homer Simpson as the ambitious, tortured Scot? That Miller's wildly imaginative one-man show 'MacHomer' is one of the hits of this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival is testimony to the rarefled place that the dysfunctional American cartoon family the Simpsons occupies in British society." >>> Read More

"In its prime, it was among the greatest TV shows in history. Even now, it has moments of brilliance. It's still better than 95 percent of television. But it's time to cancel 'The Simpsons.'" >>> Read More

"Has there ever been a female TV character as complex, intelligent, and, ahem, as emotionally well-drawn as Lisa Simpson? Meet her once and she comes off priggish and one-note - a know-it-all. Get to know her and Lisa is as well-rounded as anyone you may ever meet in the real world." >>> Read More

"The darkest months of the year are upon us. For some, the liking of winter's grim veil heralds a con current rise in spirits, a renewed enthusiasm for the myriad wonders the world has to offer. They are the lucky ones, for to a substantial number of obsessively minded TV viewers, the summer means only one thing: No new episodes of The Simpsons for at least four months. Truly a season in hell." >>> Read More

"To celebrate Sunday's 300th episode of 'The Simpsons,' Cartwright, Smith, Castellaneta and four other members of the versatile voice cast gathered in Hollywood last month, slipping in and out of character as they talked about their long runs in one of TV's most unusual acting jobs." >>> Read More

"For several years, watching The Simpsons chase Ozzie & Harriet's record for the longest-running sitcom has been like watching the late-career Pete Rose: There's still greatness there, and you get to see a home run now and then, but mostly it's a halo of reflected glory." >>> Read More

"Perhaps if TV shows can jump the shark, they can jump back, too. 'The Simpsons,' which in recent years seemed to have lost all trace of its original brilliance, certainly is attempting a daring feat, reaching back to its roots without ignoring just how far itís come in the 15 years it has been on the air. Perhaps Bart put it best in an episode last season: 'If I may dust off an old chestnut: Ay caramba! Ay caramba, indeed.'" >>> Read More

"It might be just 15 years old but with nearly 350 episodes in the can, The Simpsons is practically middle-aged. When the first episode went to air in 1989, Driving Miss Daisy was in cinemas and the world was talking about the Exxon Valdez oil spill and protests in Tiananmen Square. The global landscape has changed dramatically since then. The Simpsons' incisive social commentary has kept up with the times but the key to its longevity, says executive producer Al Jean, is making sure nothing else does." >>> Read More

"The series' characters, who first appeared as crudely produced shorts on Fox's 'The Tracey Ullman Show,' will celebrate their 20th anniversary on television with a feature film this summer, 'The Simpsons Movie,' which will have a global release July 27. How has this longevity even happened in a medium known for inspiring fickleness and apathy in audiences? Executive producer James L. Brooks says it's a combination of great raw material and uncommon creative freedom." >>> Read More

"It's a perilous project that's required years of plotting (up to 18, depending on who's counting) and the complicated synergies of hundreds of individuals (some not quite human). It has triggered surprise, curiosity, glee, anxiety, and a nationwide epidemic of finger-crossing. But on this June afternoon in L.A., it's just a bunch of guys trying to beat a deadline." >>> Read More

"What's new, irreverent, exciting, technologically advanced, maybe a little bit scary, sorta green and very, very yellow? It's the newest ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, and it features that popular and dysfunctional TV and movie family, the Simpsons." >>> Read More

"Bart Simpson hasn't aged a day since The Simpsons launched on Fox in 1989. Neither, it turns out, has its audience, which may explain The Simpsonsí current first-place tie (with Gunsmoke) for the longest-running primetime TV series, ever." >>> Read More